Dail set to abolish 10 committees

Under plans due to be signed off this week, new government committees will have a larger membership and greater power in shaping legislation

T
he government is preparing to cut the number of committees in the Dail from
23 to 13, and will give the committee system greater power in shaping
legislation.

Enda Kenny, the taoiseach, and Eamon Gilmore, the tanaiste, will meet on
Tuesday to sign off proposals to abolish at least 10 Oireachtas committees
and cut out the practice of multiple membership by backbench TDs.

Under plans outlined to the Fine Gael parliamentary party last week by Paul
Kehoe, the government chief whip, TDs will be invited to fill in a form to
apply for a place on the Dail committees they want. Fine Gael sources say
deputies will only be able to serve on one Oireachtas committee, and not on
two or three as was common practice in the last Dail.

The new committees will have a larger membership — more than 20 TDs each — and
will take on a greater significance